C/River Min of Finance eulogies fmr Commissioner, Ekpenyong as State Ranks Tops in BudgIT 2022 Fiscal Performance

0
187
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Cross River State, performed credibly well in the annual ranking of states’ fiscal performance, improving from 14th position in 2020 to 8th position in 2021 and to the 4th position nationally in 2022. This rise was driven by the Cross River State Ministry of Finance and cluster agencies & departments, under the leadership of Mr. Asuquo Ekpenyong as the then Commissioner for Finance. 

The finance cluster were able to achieve significant improvement on fiscal performance indices year-on-year for the State, by focusing on improved accountability & transparency; increased public revenue; rationalised public expenditure; improved public financial management and sustainable debt management.

The State also improved her financial reporting and transparency. The Ministry of Finance and its cluster departments and agencies ensured that quarterly budget implementation reports were made available to enable citizens to track how well the state was financing all its budgetary commitments. The State also increased prioritization of capital expenditure over its operating expenses, and the ability of the state to fund their operating expenses and loan repayments seamlessly within the fiscal year.

BudgIT is an international donor-funded civic organization that applies technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional improvement, to facilitate societal change.

The State of States ranking initiative is an annual exercise carried out to assess the fiscal performance of all 36 sub-national government in Nigeria.

 

Florence Kekong is the Information Officer, Ministry of Finance, she writes from Calabar, Nigeria